Blood of Retribution by Bonnie Lamer Read Free Book Online

poor Fairy’s eyes have filled with fear and he takes a step back.  The quickest step I’ve seen him take thus far.
     
    “Xandra,” Kallen says, bringing my attention back to him.  “Perhaps we should go.”
     
    I start to say okay, but then remember why we’re here in the first place.  “No, I have to find out if we can track down the caster of the spell.”
     
    Worry is all over his face.  “If the price is your sanity, it is not worth it.  Angel, we can find other methods.”
     
    “Which methods?  Kallen, this was our only option, which is why we had to come here?” I snap.  “Because it’s so easy to find information on familiars somewhere else?”  Wow, I’m making a pretty good play towards Bitchiest Wife of the Year Award.  Taking a deep breath and forcing myself to look up into his angry eyes, I say, “Sorry.  Again.”
     
    Trying to shove down his own anger, he tries again.  “We need to get you out of here.”
     
    I shake my head.  “No, we need this information.  I’ll be okay, I promise.”
     
    He doesn’t believe me, that’s apparent.  His eyes are boring into mine as if he can see the lie tattooed on my irises.  “Xandra,” he begins, but the scribe cuts him off.
     
    “You must let her go on this journey alone.  She will find the information she seeks.”
     
    “You just keep getting weirder and weirder,” I say to the scribe and of course I instantly feel terrible.  Nothing like kicking the nearly dead when they’re already down.  Trying to scrub that sentence from their minds, I rush to say, “Kallen, I have to do this.  Whoever is behind the familiar spell obviously is an expert in black magic.  I need to learn some of its secrets so I’m able to protect myself.  And all of you like usual,” I add, immediately wishing I could take it back.
     
    After a long, hard look, he finally says, “Go.”
     
    Geez, I hope he just means go find the spell information because the look in his eyes could easily pass for ‘go away and never come back’.  I simply nod, not wanting clarification at the moment.  Blowing him a kiss that I’m sure just bounced off his wall of anger, I turn and continue my journey into the depths of darkness.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 6
     
    What am I doing?  I don’t have the first clue how to find anything in here.  There has to be at least a million pieces of paper and books.  There’s no way I can look at them all.  I’d be as old as the scribe by the time I finished.  And some of them are so old that I don’t dare touch them.  I really hope none of them hold the answers.
     
    Choosing an aisle at random, I study the columns of ancient texts.  There’s an unfortunate odor to them.  They smell like chocolate-covered, used sweat socks that a zombie wore for a week or so.  A sickly sweet smell covering a rancid, damp one.  I’m pretty sure I’ll never get this smell out of my pores.  Kallen had better like his wife stinky.
     
    Stopping in the middle of the aisle, I reach my hand out to touch a random book.  I jump back when the book slides towards me on its own.  A soft whispering is coming from it in some language I don’t understand.  I’m sure it’s saying ‘pick me’, but it’s saying a lot more than that as well.  Probably something along the lines of ‘pick me and kill everyone you know just by reading one of my pages’.  I decide to move farther down the aisle.
     
    The deeper into the dark magic section I get, the heavier my body feels.  I feel like I’m wading through a giant vat of chocolate pudding.  Soon, I find that I’m having trouble putting one foot in front of the other until it feels as if the pudding has turned to sludge.  I finally reach a point where I cannot walk anymore.  Great.  What am I going to do now?
     
    With a painful zing, a spell pops into my head and before I can stop myself, I say the words out loud even though I uselessly try to bite